Home Brewed Kombucha

For Christmas this year, my sneaky husband ordered a SCOBY from the UK (from here), bought a big glass jar and then secretly started brewing a batch of kombucha in his office. I have the best husband ever. He even wrapped it and put it under the tree….with very strict instructions not to shake it, touch it, pick it up or even breathe on it.

I had kombucha for the first time this past summer while we were in Boston attending the Ancestral Health Symposium (which you can read about here, here, here and here). It seems pretty widely available in the States and we found it at every health food store we went into. The only kombucha I’ve found here in Switzerland is a drink called Carpe Diem which is pasteurized and probably no longer has any of the benefits of real kombucha. I’ve been wanting to make my own, but have been a little intimidated by the whole process. Besides, all my friends already think I’m just a little crazy with the whole paleo thing. They would think I was truly off-my-rocker, lola-granola hippie crazy if I started growing bacteria cultures in my closets, right?

I’m not going to go into all of the health benefits of kombucha, I’ll leave that to the experts over at Kombucha Kamp. If you would like to learn about kombucha, have a look at their informative page here.

Here is the recipe we followed and here are some important tips to be aware of before you get started:

What You Need

A glass container/jar of some description, we used a big glass cookie jar with a glass lid that holds approx 2 to 2.5 liters.

Tea bags – we used organic back tea, and it is imperative that all brewing is done using a base of ‘real’ tea, be it green, black, white etc. The acids in fruit and herbal teas aren’t good for your scoby.

Sugar. We used organic raw cane sugar. The sugar is the food for the bacteria cultures (scoby). They eat it all and not much is actually left in your finished kombucha.

A SCOBY, of course!

Jars or bottles to store your finished kombucha in. I use mason jars.

What to do

Place your tea bags (we used 7 bags for 2.5 liters of water) and 230 grams of sugar in a large pot, NOT the glass jar you will be brewing in.

Boil a kettle of water. We used 2.5 liters of boiling water.

Pour your boiling water over your tea bags and sugar and let it steep for 30 minutes before removing tea bags.

Stir after steeping to make sure all of the sugar is dissolved.

Wait until the tea is cool to touch, by that I mean, if you stick your little finger in, it feels no more than barely warm, and closer to cold. This could take several hours.

Cover the opening of your glass jar. You can use an upside down plate or some cotton fabric (cut from an old t-shirt) secured with a rubber band. Our glass jar happens to have a lid that covers the opening but still allows air in and out (which is what you want). The idea is to have a cover that is unsealed but provides protection from dust and bugs.

Now you need to put your kombucha someplace out of direct light (in the closet or a cupboard). It should also be kept from any extreme temperatures.

Your Kombucha will take between eight and ten days to brew. Take a look at the color of the tea when you first put your Kombucha into it, then note how the liquid becomes cloudier over the passing days. My recommendation is that, after six days you pour a very small amount into a glass (or stick a straw in) and have a sip. If the brew tastes fruity and not tea like, it’s ready, if not, leave it another day and try again. Everybody will have a different preference for the “doneness” of their kombucha. It’s ready when it tastes good to you.

Day 7

You can bottle it up and drink as is at this point, or you can go on to do a second fermentation to add a little bit more fizz or to add a flavor. We left half our batch plain and added 2 slices/per jar of mango to the other half and went on to a second fermentation.

To make different flavors, you’ll go on to complete a secondfermentation:

Once the kombucha is at a desired level of tartness/sweetness from the first round of fermentation, pour it into your bottles or mason jars.

Next, you can add fruit slices, whole berries, fruit puree or herbs/spices (like ginger or lavender). We added mango this time around, but you can bet we will be trying all sorts of flavors! Then close the jars and re-place them in a dark, cool spot. Allow them to ferment another 5-7 (or more) days to your taste.

The ‘Mango Brew’

Flavor Combinations I’m going to try soon:

lemon-ginger

ginger-blueberry

raspberry-apple

strawberry-banana

Leave a bit of the tea in your brewing jar with your scoby and put it back in the cupboard until you are ready to add more tea and brew another batch. Don’t put your scoby in the fridge. Our scoby made a “baby”—a whole new layer of scoby on top of the original. Now we can brew two batches at once…as soon as I can get my hands on a second jar!

hi I’m just starting out with home brewing kombucha.
just wondering where did you get the brewing jar?
also is there a difference whether you pour boiling water on the tea or is it only classed as raw if you use coldish watwer?

Hi,
We got our brewing jars at at a local decorator/garden shop near where we live (Wyss Garden Center in Völkiland). I think it was being sold as a cookie jar. We make the tea with boiling water, but then let it cool completely before adding the scoby. If you add the scoby to the tea while it’s still hot, you will kill the scoby. Hope that makes sense Good luck with your kombucha.

Hey Lisa, I am finally trying this, and am brewing my first batch. However, after boiling 1 gallon of water, then steeped 8 tea bags and added 1 cup of sugar, I could not find a 1 gallon container to brew it anywhere. I resorted to a 1L glass vase from Migros. Because the size is smaller, I ended up only using about 1/2 the brewed tea + 1/2 cup starter tea and the scoby, and now have it sitting covered in my cabinet. Due to the small size brewing container, do you think it will still come out ok?

lisa / 23 July 2014

Hi Desiree,
It should turn out fine but just might be done a little sooner than a large batch. Taste it after about 5 days and see what you think. We got our large container from a home decorator section in a garden center. It was meant to be a cookie jar

christian / 17 January 2013

Next month i want to start to brew Kombucha tea! Which size Scoby you recommend? Large or medium?

Yep, all those scobies accumulate quickly We keep a an extra container that we call our “scoby hotel”. We toss the extra scobies in there and make sure they stay covered with a bit of kombucha to keep them moist. It’s nice to have an extra few on hand in case anything ever happens and a scoby dies. After we just have too many, we throw them out. I’ve heard some people dry them out and use them as dog treats Our original scoby from a few years ago is still going strong. You can also brew a batch with more than one scoby ( it just speeds up the brewing time). I hope your kombucha turns out for you. If it tastes too vinegary, it means you brewed it a bit too long. I actually like it much tarter tasting now than I did in the beginning (almost to the point of vinegar!). It’s just nice to have something other than water to drink sometimes.

I read the directions twice but don’t understand how/where you get what you’re calling SCOBY from. I know what SCOBY means but do you start with a “mother” and add it to the jar or is what you pour into the jar becoming the SCOBY? I’m very new to Paleo and haven’t come across Kombucha before now. Thanks for your help.

Hi Becky,
First of all, welcome to paleo!!! Yes, the scoby is sometimes referred to as the “mother”. You can purchase them online and have them sent to you. If you are in the States you can get one from this very reputable source http://www.kombuchakamp.com/ Each time you make a batch of kombucha, your scoby will make another scoby. I started with one scoby that I ordered from the UK and now I have a ton of them. If you live in Switzerland, I’d be happy to send you one So, for your first ever batch, you make up the tea with sugar (steep the tea bags for 30 minutes). Let the tea cool to room temperature and slide the scoby (mother) in to the tea. Then let it sit for about 8 days and you’ll end up with kombucha. You can also buy pre-bottled kombucha at many places in the States if you don’t want to make it. I used to be a major coke zero addict and then I just started drinking water when I went paleo. Kombucha is nice because it gives me a choice other than water and it’s great for intestinal health at the same time. Good luck if you give it a try and just let me know if you have any more questions:-)

Hi,
I do have scobys but I don’t have a vacum sealer so I’m not sure how well it would work to mail them since they have to be kept in some kombucha liquid. I’m afraid a ziplock bag (inside an envelope) would open and leak. Do you live in the Zurich area?

Hi Kamola,
Yes, probably in about 2 weeks time. I can send you an email when I’ve got some.

Becky / 25 September 2013

Got my own SCOBY from my sweet niece. Fingers crossed for next 8-10 days I get it right!! Use fresh ginger as a good idea?:Sliced or grated, whole for flavor after first fermentation? What do you recommend? Thanks!

Hi Becky! When I used ginger before, I just cut up some slices and put them in after the first fermentation. I’m so lazy these days and have really grown to just love my kombucha plain. We also drink quite a bit of it so I can’t usually be patient enough to wait around for a second fermentation Good luck with your new scoby!!

You’ve just dashed my hopes about the Carpe Diem Kombucha! I just found this in Migros the other day and was soooo excited to try it. Having never tried it before I didn’t know what I was looking for. I am looking forward to going back to Canada in July and trying some there but in the meantime it looks like I will have to attempt to make my own here in Switzerland. Do you have the website that your husband used to purchase the SCOBY from the UK?
Many thanks!!

Are you still trying to find homes for any baby SCOBYs?
I live in Zurich and would be happy to come to wherever is convenient for you if you wouldn’t mind selling/passing on one!

Love your site! My stance is not quite paleo, but I don’t eat any processed fructose and much of the rest of me “diet” seems to align with the paleo philosophy. I just can’t give up all bread and pasta, so I buy wholemeal spelt varieties of pasta and sourdough spelt bread.

If you ever fancy meeting to chat about food and exercise (I’m a boulderer, predominantly), I’m always up for meeting new like-minded people